Number

STUB

Number is an inflectional dimension used on countable referring expressions to designate the number of referents concerned. Languages differ as to how number is categorized. The most common distinctions are between singular, dual, paucal and plural.

It is one of the phi-features which may be involved in agreement. The most common number features are +/- plural and +/- singular.

Synonyms

• cardinality (though this generally refers to the purely semantic level, while number designates an inflectional category)

Polysemy

The term number is also commonly used (non-technically, and not quite accurately) in the sense of numeral.

Inflectional categories

• singular
• plural
• dual
• trial
• quadral
• paucal
• singulative
• plurative
• general number, transnumeral

Reference

• Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Other languages

• French nombre (fr)
• German Numerus